Prairie Folks

by Garland, Hamlin

  "Glory! we'll be seeding by Friday, sure."

  This short and disappointing soliloquy was, after all, an expression of deep emotion. To the Western farmer the very word "seeding" is a poem. And these few words, coming from Lyman Gilman, meant more and expressed more than many a large and ambitious spring-time song.

  But the glory of all the slumbrous landscape, the stately beauty of the sky with its masses of fleecy vapor, were swept away by the sound of a girl's voice humming, "Come to the Savior," while she bustled about the kitchen near by. The windows were open. Ah! what suggestion to these dwellers in a rigorous climate was in the first unsealing of the windows! How sweet it was to the pale and weary women after their long imprisonment!

  As Lyman sat down on his maple log to hear better, a plump face appeared at the window, and a clear girl-voice said:

  "Smell anything, Lime?"

  He snuffed the air. "Cookies, by the great horn spoons!" he yelled, leaping up. "Bring me some, an' see me eat; it'll do ye good."

  "Come an' get 'm," laughed the face at the window.

  "Oh, it's nicer out here, Merry Etty. What's the rush? Bring me out some, an' set down on this log."

  With a nod Marietta disappeared, and soon came out with a plate of cookies in one hand and a cup of milk in the other.

  "Poor little man, he's all tired out, ain't he?"

  Lime, taking the cue, collapsed in a heap, and said feebly, "Bread, bread!"

  "Won't milk an' cookies do as well?"

  He brushed off the log and motioned her to sit down beside him, but she hesitated a little and colored a little.

  "O Lime, s'pose somebody should see us?"

  "Let 'em. What in thunder do we care? Sit down an' gimme a holt o' them cakes. I'm just about done up. I couldn't 'a' stood it another minute."

  She sat down beside him with a laugh and a pretty blush. She was in her apron, and the sleeves of her dress were rolled to her elbows, displaying the strong, round arms. Wholesome and sweet she looked and smelled, the scent of the cooking round her. Lyman munched a couple of the cookies and gulped a pint of milk before he spoke.

  "Whadda we care who sees us sittin' side b' side? Ain't we goin' t' be married soon?"

  "Oh, them cookies in the oven!" she shrieked, leaping up and running to the house. She looked back as she reached the kitchen door, however, and smiled with a flushed face. Lime slapped his knee and roared with laughter at his bold stroke.

  "Ho! ho!" he laughed. "Didn't I do it slick? Ain't nothin' green in my eye, I guess." In an intense and pleasurable abstraction he finished the cookies and the milk. Then he yelled:

  "Hey! Merry—Merry Etty!"

  "Whadda ye want?" sang the girl from the window, her face still rosy with confusion.

  "Come out here and git these things."

  The girl shook her head, with a laugh.

  "Come out an' git 'm, 'r by jingo I'll throw 'em at ye! Come on, now!"

  The girl looked at the huge, handsome fellow, the sun falling on his golden hair and beard, and came slowly out to him—came creeping along with her hand outstretched for the plate which Lime, with a laugh in his sunny blue eyes, extended at the full length of his bare arm. The girl made a snatch at it, but his left hand caught her by the wrist, and away went cup and plate as he drew her to him and kissed her in spite of her struggles.

  "My! ain't you strong!" she said, half-ruefully and half-admiringly, as she shrugged her shoulders. "If you'd use a little more o' that choppin' wood, Dad wouldn't 'a' lost s' much money by yeh."

  Lime grew grave.

  "There's the hog in the fence, Merry; what's yer dad goin' t' say"——

  "About what?"

  "About our gitt'n' married this spring."

  "I guess you'd better find out what I'm a-goin' t' say, Lime Gilman, 'fore you pitch into Dad."

  "I know what you're a-goin' t' say."

  "No, y' don't."

  "Yes, but I do, though."

  "Well, ask me, and see, if you think you're so smart. Jest as like 's not, you'll slip up."

  "All right; here goes. Marietty Bacon, ain't you an' Lime Gilman goin' t' be married?"

  "No, sir, we ain't," laughed the girl, snatching up the plate and darting away to the house, where she struck up "Weevily Wheat," and went busily on about her cooking. Lime threw a kiss, at her, and fell to work on his log with startling energy.

  Lyman looked forward to his interview with the old man with as much trepidation as he had ever known, though commonly he had little fear of anything—but a girl.

  Marietta was not only the old man's only child, his housekeeper, his wife having at last succumbed to the ferocious toil of the farm. It was reasonable to suppose, therefore, that he would surrender his claim on the girl reluctantly. Rough as he was, he loved Marietta strongly, and would find it exceedingly hard to get along without her.

  Lyman mused on these things as he drove the gleaming ax into the huge maple logs. He was something more than the usual hired man, being a lumberman from the Wisconsin pineries, where he had sold out his interest in a camp not three weeks before the day he began work for Bacon. He had a nice "little wad o' money" when he left the camp and started for La Crosse, but he had been robbed in his hotel the first night in the city, and was left nearly penniless. It was a great blow to him, for, as he said, every cent of that money "stood fer hard knocks an' poor feed. When I smelt of it I could jest see the cold, frosty mornin's and the late nights. I could feel the hot sun on my back like it was when I worked in the harvest-field. By jingo! It kind o' made my toes curl up."

  But he went resolutely out to work again, and here he was chopping wood in old man Bacon's yard, thinking busily on the talk which had just passed between him and Marietta.

  "By jingo!" he said all at once, stopping short, with the ax on his shoulder. "If I hadn't 'a' been robbed I wouldn't 'a' come here—I never'd met Merry. Thunder and jimson root! Wasn't that a narrow escape?"

  And then he laughed so heartily that the girl looked out of the window again to see what in the world he was doing. He had his hat in his hand and was whacking his thigh with it.

  "Lyman Gilman, what in the world ails you to-day? It's perfectly ridiculous the way you yell and talk t' y'rself out there on the chips. You beat the hens, I declare if you don't."

  Lime put on his hat and walked up to the window, and, resting his great bare arms on the sill, and his chin on his arms, said:

  "Merry, I'm goin' to tackle 'Dad' this afternoon. He'll be settin' up the new seeder, and I'm goin' t' climb right on the back of his neck. He's jest got t' give me a chance."

  Marietta looked sober in sympathy.

  "Well! P'raps it's best to have it over with, Lime, but someway I feel kind o' scary about it."

  Lime stood for a long time looking in at the window, watching the light-footed girl as she set the table in the middle of the sun-lighted kitchen floor. The kettle hissed, the meat sizzled, sending up a delicious odor; a hen stood in the open door and sang a sort of cheery half-human song, while to and fro moved the sweet-faced, lithe and powerful girl, followed by the smiling eyes at the window.

  "Merry, you look purty as a picture. You look just like the wife I be'n a-huntin' for all these years, sure 's shootin'."

  Marietta colored with pleasure.

  "Does Dad pay you to stand an' look at me an' say pretty things t' the cook?"

  "No, he don't. But I'm willin' t' do it without pay. I could jest stand here till kingdom come an' look at you. Hello! I hear a wagon. I guess I better hump into that wood-pile."

  "I think so, too. Dinner's most ready, and Dad'll be here soon."

  Lime was driving away furiously at a tough elm log when Farmer Bacon drove into the yard with a new seeder in his wagon. Lime whacked away busily while Bacon stabled the team, and in a short time Marietta called, in a long-drawn, musical fashion:

  "Dinner-r-r!"

  After sozzling their faces at the well the two men went in and sat down at the table. Bacon
was not much of a talker at any time, and at mealtime, in seeding, eating was the main business in hand; therefore the meal was a silent one, Marietta and Lime not caring to talk on general topics. The hour was an anxious one for her, and an important one for him.

  "Wal, now, Lime, seedun' 's the nex' thing," said Bacon, as he shoved back his chair and glared around from under his bushy eyebrows, "We can't do too much this afternoon. That seeder's got t' be set up an' a lot o' seed-wheat cleaned up. You unload the machine while I feed the pigs."

  Lime sat still till the old man was heard outside calling "Oo-ee, poo-ee" to the pigs in the yard; then he smiled at Marietta, but she said:

  "He's got on one of his fits, Lime; I don't b'lieve you'd better tackle him t'-day."

  "Don't you worry; I'll fix him. Come, now, give me a kiss."

  "Why, you great thing! You—took"——

  "I know, but I want you to give 'em to me. Just walk right up to me an' give me a smack t' bind the bargain."

  "I ain't made any bargain," laughed the girl. Then, feeling the force of his tender tone, she added: "Will you behave, and go right off to your work?"

  "Jest like a little man—hope t' die!"

  "Lime!" roared the old man from the barn.

  "Hello!" replied Lime, grinning joyously and winking at the girl, as much as to say, "This would paralyze the old man if he saw it."

  He went out to the shed where Bacon was at work, as serene as if he had not a fearful task on hand. He was apprehensive that the father might "gig back" unless rightly approached, and so he awaited a good opportunity.

  The right moment seemed to present itself along about the middle of the afternoon. Bacon was down on the ground under the machine, tightening some burrs. This was a good chance for two reasons. In the first place the keen, almost savage eyes of Bacon were no longer where they could glare on him, and in spite of his cool exterior Lime had just as soon not have the old man looking at him.

  Besides, the old farmer had been telling about his "river eighty," which was without a tenant; the man who had taken it, having lost his wife, had grown disheartened and had given it up.

  "It's an almighty good chance for a man with a small family. Good house an' barn, good land. A likely young feller with a team an' a woman could do tip-top on that eighty. If he wanted more, I'd let him have an eighty j'inun'"——

  "I'd like t' try that m'self," said Lime, as a feeler. The old fellow said nothing in reply for a moment.

  "Ef you had a team an' tools an' a woman, I'd jest as lief you'd have it as anybody."

  "Sell me your blacks, and I'll pay half down—the balance in the fall. I can pick up some tools, and as for a woman, Merry Etty an' me have talked that over to-day. She's ready to—ready to marry me whenever you say go."

  There was an ominous silence under the seeder, as if the father could not believe his ears.

  "What's—what's that?" he stuttered. "Who'd you say? What about Merry Etty?"

  "She's agreed to marry me."

  "The hell you say!" roared Bacon, as the truth burst upon him. "So that's what you do when I go off to town and leave you to chop wood. So you're goun' to git married, hey?"

  He was now where Lime could see him, glaring up into his smiling blue eyes. Lime stood his ground.

  "Yes, sir. That's the calculation."

  "Well, I guess I'll have somethin' t' say about that," nodding his head violently.

  "I rather expected y' would. Blaze away. Your privilege—my bad luck. Sail in, ol' man. What's y'r objection to me fer a son-in-law?"

  "Don't you worry, young feller. I'll come at it soon enough," went on Bacon, as he turned up another burr in a very awkward corner. In his nervous excitement the wrench slipped, banging his knuckle.

  "Ouch! Thunder—m-m-m!" howled and snarled the wounded man.

  "What's the matter? Bark y'r knuckle?" queried Lime, feeling a mighty impulse to laugh. But when he saw the old savage straighten up and glare at him he sobered. Bacon was now in a frightful temper. The veins in his great, bare, weather-beaten neck swelled dangerously.

  "Jest let me say right here that I've had enough o' you. You can't live on the same acre with my girl another day."

  "What makes ye think I can't?" It was now the young man's turn to draw himself up, and as he faced the old man, his arms folded and each vast hand grasping an elbow, he looked like a statue of red granite, and the hands resembled the paws of a crouching lion: but his eyes smiled.

  "I don't think, I know ye won't."

  "What's the objection to me?"

  "Objection? Hell! What's the inducement? My hired man, an' not three shirts to yer back!"

  "That's another; I've got four. Say, old man, did you ever work out for a living?"

  "That's none o' your business," growled Bacon, a little taken down. "I've worked, an' scraped, an' got t'gether a little prop'ty here, an' they ain't no sucker like you goun' to come 'long here, an' live off me, an' spend my prop'ty after I'm dead. You can jest bet high on that."

  "Who's goin' t' live on ye?"

  "You're aimun' to."

  "I ain't, neither."

  "Yes, y'are. You've loafed on me ever since I hired ye."

  "That's a"—— Lime checked himself for Marietta's sake, and the enraged father went on:

  "I hired ye t' cut wood, an' you've gone an' fooled my daughter away from me. Now you jest figger up what I owe ye, and git out o' here. Ye can't go too soon t' suit me."

  Bacon was renowned as the hardest man in Cedar County to handle, and though he was getting old, he was still a terror to his neighbors when roused. He was honest, temperate, and a good neighbor until something carried him off his balance; then he became as cruel as a panther and as savage as a grizzly. All this Lime knew, but it did not keep his anger down so much as did the thought of Marietta. His silence infuriated Bacon, who yelled hoarsely:

  "Git out o' this!"

  "Don't be in a rush, ol' man"——

  Bacon hurled himself upon Lime, who threw out one hand and stopped him, while he said in a low voice:

  "Stay right where you are, ol' man. I'm dangerous. It's for Merry's sake"——

  The infuriated old man struck at him. Lime warded off the blow, and with a sudden wrench and twist threw him to the ground with frightful force. Before Bacon could rise, Marietta, who had witnessed the scene, came flying from the house.

  "Lime! Father! What are you doing?"

  "I—couldn't help it, Merry. It was him 'r me," said Lime, almost sadly.

  "Dad, ain't you got no sense? What 're you thinking of? You jest stop right now. I won't have it."

  He rose while she clung to him; he seemed a little dazed. It was the first time he had ever been thrown, and he could not but feel a certain respect for his opponent, but he could not give way.

  "Pack up yer duds," he snarled, "an' git off'n my land. I'll have the money fer ye when ye come back. I'll give ye jest five minutes to git clear o' here. Merry, you stay here."

  The young man saw it was useless to remain, as it would only excite the old man; and so, with a look of apology, not without humor, at Marietta, he went to the house to get his valise. The girl wept silently while the father raged up and down. His mood frightened her.

  "I thought you had more sense than t' take up with such a dirty houn'."

  "He ain't a houn'," she blazed forth, "and he's just as good and clean as you are."

  "Shut up! Don't let me hear another word out o' your head. I'm boss here yet, I reckon."

  Lime came out with his valise in his hand.

  "Good-by, Merry," he said cheerily. She started to go to him, but her father's rough grasp held her.

  "Set down, an' stay there."

  Lime was going out of the gate.

  "Here! Come and get y'r money," yelled the old man, extending some bills. "Here's twenty"——-

  "Go to thunder with your money," retorted Lime. "I've had my pay for my month's work." As he said that, he thought of the sunny kitchen and the me
rry girl, and his throat choked. Good-by to the sweet girl whose smile was so much to him, and to the happy noons and nights her eyes had made for him. He waved his hat at her as he stood in the open gate, and the sun lighted his handsome head into a sort of glory in her eyes. Then he turned and walked rapidly off down the road, not looking back.

  The girl, when she could no longer see him, dashed away, and, sobbing violently, entered the house.

  * * *

  II.

  There was just a suspicion of light in the east, a mere hint of a glow, when Lyman walked cautiously around the corner of the house and tapped at Marietta's window. She was sleeping soundly and did not hear, for she had been restless during the first part of the night. He tapped again, and the girl woke without knowing what woke her.

  Lyman put the blade of his pocket-knife under the window and raised it a little, and then placed his lips to the crack, and spoke in a sepulchral tone, half groan, half whisper:

  "Merry! Merry Etty!"

  The dazed girl sat up in bed and listened, while her heart almost stood still.

  "Merry, it's me—Lime. Come to the winder." The girl hesitated, and Lyman spoke again.

  "Come, I hain't got much time. This is your last chance t' see me. It's now 'r never."

  The girl slipped out of bed and, wrapping herself in a shawl, crept to the window.

  "Boost on that winder," commanded Lyman. She raised it enough to admit his head, which came just above the sill; then she knelt on the floor by the window.

  Her eyes stared wide and dark. "Lime, what in the world do you mean"——

  "I mean business," he replied. "I ain't no last year's chicken; I know when the old man sleeps the soundest." He chuckled pleasantly.

  "How'd y' fool old Rove?"

  "Never mind about that now; they's something more important on hand. You've got t' go with me."

  She drew back. "Oh, Lime, I can't!"